Let's elect Specter
By Bruce Walker
web posted May 3, 2004
Last week, the best possible outcome of the Pennsylvania
senatorial primary would have been a Toomey victory on
Tuesday followed by a Pennsylvania Republican victory in
November which included the election of a Senator Toomey and
the capture of Pennsylvania's twenty-one electoral votes for
President Bush.
Today, however, the best possible outcome is the reelection of
Senator Specter and the capture of Pennsylvania's twenty-one
electoral votes for President Bush. It would be madness for
conservatives to think otherwise.
Senator Specter is not a conservative, but he will support the
reelection of President Bush and can help the President carry
Pennsylvania. Specter will also unquestionably vote with
Republicans to organize the Senate. Both of these political
objectives are critically important in the current very dangerous
world.
If Specter is not a conservative, is he a liberal? Not really. Over
his career, Senator Specter voted "Right" according to the
American Conservative Union forty-three percent of the time.
Congressman Hoeffel, the Democrat nominee for Specter's seat,
voted "Right" over his career only eight percent of the time.
Specter is not conservative or liberal. He is one of the few
senators who could actually be called "moderate." Only three out
of forty-nine Senate Democrats - Zell Miller of Georgia, Ben
Nelson of Nebraska and John Breaux of Louisiana - have voting
records as conservative as Specter. Miller and Breaux are not
seeking reelection this year.
Democrat senators from states much more conservative than
Pennsylvania, states that President Bush will carry, like North
Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, South Dakota, Indiana,
North Dakota and Louisiana (Landrieu) are not remotely as
conservative as Specter.
Republicans in the Northeast come in three varieties. The first is
the conservative Republican, who survives statewide elections.
Except for Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania, only Republicans
in New Hampshire have been able to do this consistently. When
we try to elect some as good as Bret Schundler in the Northeast,
we nearly always get someone worse than Christine Todd
Whitman.
James Buckley was an outstanding New York senator, but he
lost his only reelection campaign. Alfonse D'Amato was a savvy
a politician as one is likely to ever see, yet his conservatism
ultimately led to his defeat in 1998.
The second variety of Northeastern Republican is the John
Lindsey, Jim Jeffords, Lowell Weicker type of Republicans,
which is to say not Republican at all. If conservative Republicans
are rare in the Northeast, these Leftist Republicans are virtually
extinct.
The third variety of Northeastern Republican is the Rudy
Giuliani, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter type of Republican.
These Republicans are to the Left of the Republican center but
clearly to the Right of the Democrat center. They sometimes
snipe at Republican positions, but they also render critical
support at crucial junctures.
If a Leftist Democrat had been Mayor of New York on
September 11, 2001, instead of a principled, liberal Republican,
President Bush would still be fending off crazy complaints
concocted by the Democrat National Committee and dutifully
spouted from Gracie Mansion. Did Specter have such a "Rudy"
moment? Yes.
Specter played a decisive role in the confirmation of Clarence
Thomas. The battle was extraordinarily heated and Specter,
despite all his subsequent backpedaling, defied feminists and
unflinchingly defended Thomas. That took guts.
Thomas was the first conservative black to gain very high
political office in modern America. J.C. Watts, Condi Rice and
many other black conservatives will follow Justice Thomas, but
Clarence Thomas was the first bull's eye and Specter defended
him.
Specter has also voted with the Republicans to end Democrat
filibustering of the President's judicial appointments. These
procedural votes provide a perfect opportunity for a phony
politician to pretend to support a nominee but actually oppose
the nominee.
Significantly, the vast majority of Democrat senators from
conservative states whose voters want conservatives on the
federal bench supported the filibuster, even though these
senators would have been hard pressed to actually vote against
the nominee in a floor vote.
Arlen Specter is not well liked, but likeability should not sway
conservatives. Indeed, an insatiable craving for popularity leads
to presidents who take public opinion polls before naming their
pet dog. Indifference to the opinions of others may even be
considered a conservative virtue. Leftists do not like Specter
much either.
Senator Specter is Jewish. Increasingly Jewish voters are seeing
the Republican Party as the most logical political party to
support. Good men like Norm Coleman, who grew up as a
Jewish Democrat in New York, now feel more comfortable as
conservative Republicans.
The Philadelphia mayoral race, which has been a very close
partisan contest the last two elections, has had Katz, a Jewish
Republican, challenge the Street Democrat machine. Ed Koch, a
liberal Jewish Democrat, is emphatically supporting President
Bush. The Specter win disappoints conservatives like me, but it
may also help persuade some Jewish voters who want to
support the Republican Party that they are welcome.
These are all good reasons for Republicans and conservatives to
rally behind Arlen Specter and help him win reelection, which
will also help President Bush win reelection and Republicans to
hold the Senate. But there is another good reason to help reelect
him.
Arlen Specter is seventy-four years old and he will be eighty
when he next faces reelection. It is entirely possible that he will
retire then. Certainly the closeness of his victory will encourage
him to lean toward a dignified end of his political career, rather
than losing a Republican primary.
Genuine Republicans have made great strides in Pennsylvania.
Both houses of the Pennsylvania State Legislature are
Republican and most of the congressional delegation is
Republican as well. Senator Santorum is a popular conservative
Republican. Tom Ridge was a popular moderate Republican
governor. Pat Toomey lost on Tuesday, but if Specter wins in
2004 and retires in 2010, then there is an excellent chance that a
conservative similar to Rick Santorum could hold the seat for
Republicans.
If Joseph Hoeffel captures the seat for Democrats, he will
undoubtedly seek reelection in 2010, and probably would be
favored to win that reelection (how many incumbent liberal
Democrat senators have lost reelection in the Northeast?)
The Toomey candidacy was intended to send a message and it
did. If Specter is reelected and retires in 2010, as he might, then
a young, telegenic conservative like Rick Santorum or Mike
DeWine win the Republican nomination and have a united
Republican Party supporting his election.
If Specter loses, then we will lose not just one senate seat now,
we will not just risk losing control of the Senate, we may even
risk losing the White House, but we will also lose the hope of a
future conservative colleague for Rick Santorum in the Senate.
Ronald Reagan, my hero, was not stupid or craven or ignorant.
His Eleventh Commandment made sense then and it makes
sense now: Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Another Republican.
Like it or not, Arlen Specter convinced Pennsylvania
Republicans that he should carry their banner. We should
respect that and support him.
Bruce Walker is a senior writer with Enter Stage Right. He is
also a frequent contributor to The Pragmatist and The Common
Conservative.
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com